Freaky Fun Friday Part I — Staci’s Gone Missing!

So here’s the first part of my found footage horror film. I still don’t have a good title for this whole thing, but that didn’t stop me before. It’s not going to stop me now. Let’s get into it:

Our untitled movie opens with news footage talking about how a professor and four students have gone missing from New Belton University. Professor Howard Erickson holds a press conference, explaining that he thinks his colleague, journalism professor Veronica Weathers, and the students were victims of foul play. He claims that he has evidence of this. When the local police chief is asked about this evidence, he dismisses it as a hoax.

Cut to an interview with Professor Erickson. He explains that he received an odd e-mail one evening from Weathers, claiming that she had uploaded some video footage into the department server and that it had to do with four New Belton students who had missed classes for several days. Erickson said he retrieved the footage and it disturbed him enough that he called the police. Now that the police have dismissed his concerns, he’s put the footage together as best he could and now he’s releasing it to the public in hopes that someone will be able to shed some light on what happened.

We cut to an image of Veronica Weathers. She’s a nice looking middle aged woman. She’s obviously set up a camera to record herself talking. She explains that she’s a journalism professor at New Belton. She goes on to talk about how she’s concerned about one of her students, a young lady named Staci Fowler. Staci is a promising student with aspirations for being a political reporter. Several weeks ago, Staci approached Weathers, asking for advice on how to do a big expose. Staci didn’t go into details at the time, but she claimed to be on the trail of a story that could help make her mark before she’s even graduated from college. Weathers says that she humored Staci at the time but thought that her student was exaggerating.

Then Staci and three of her friends left campus. Several days later, Weathers received an ominous voice mail message from Staci. Weathers pulls out her phone and plays the message for the camera.

At first, we don’t hear anything, just rustling and what might be heavy breathing. But then, we hear the gasps and sobs of a young woman crying. “Dr. Weathers? It’s Staci. We went to Garretsburg anyway, and now . . . I don’t know what happened. Bethany is dead and . . .” A burst of static drowns out her words. When they come back, she’s crying harder. “We should never have come here. The sheriff is in on it.” Another burst of static. “He’s after me now and I don’t know if—”

The line goes dead. Weathers explains that she looked it up on the map. Garretsburg is a small community to the north of New Belton, so she’s planning on going up there to see what she can find out.

Want to know what Weathers finds in Garretsburg? Come back next week to see. And if you like what you’re reading, be sure to let folks know what I’m up to. The more the merrier.